This is the 11th time Karnataka CM, Siddaramaiah has presented the budget. He has done so as he was finance minister in earlier governments.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today announced a Rs 5000 crore special package for Bengaluru in the state budget.
The city has hit headlines for its many civic difficulties and the funds have been allocated to certain tricky areas.
Rs 500 crore for solid waste management has been allotted for the city - where measures to deal with the estimated 4000 tonnes of garbage generated daily are still not in place.
Traffic is another bugbear, and the hope would be that with Rs 440 crore set aside for 51 kilometres of signal free roads in major corridors of the city, this would ease the pressure. The long delayed Namma Metro project was mentioned in the speech - with two reaches of Phase 2 to be ready by 2020.
Polluted lakes have also made international news - and Rs 100 crore has been allotted for lake development in the city and Rs 800 crore for storm water drains.
Elsewhere in the state, it was a bad year for farmers with crop prices falling and debts rising. More than 1000 farmers killed themselves last year in the state and the budget had many measures that would hopefully ease their condition. These include a Suvarna Krishi Grama Yojana introduced to help farmers and Krishi Navodyama scheme for start-ups in agricultural sector.
A separate corporation is to be set up for implementation of Yettinahole project - this would benefit farmers of dry southern districts like Kolar, Tumkur, Chikballapur and Bengaluru Rural who had recently marched into Bengaluru in an attempt to reach Vidhana Soudha to highlight their condition.
On the entertainment front, people in the state will need to pay a little bit more for film tickets - and also soft drinks and alcohol. But in an effort to encourage the green habit - LED bulbs and electric cars will be cheaper.
Mr Siddaramaiah is very familiar with the entire process of presenting a budget - this is the 11th time he has done so as he was finance minister in earlier governments - and his fourth as chief minister.
The rationalist chief minister presented the budget during Rahu Kala, considered by many to be inauspicious. He told reporters earlier that he had no clue as to what these timings were and did not believe in them either.